McEnroe gives the classic tennis establishment response: "...I think it’s as rigorously tested as any sport other than the Olympics that I’m aware of...Maybe more so than any other sport, whether it’s football, basketball..."

Rafter is more circumspect: "No idea [if it’s a problem in tennis]. I hope to think there’s not...I think there’s always a case here and there, but I don’t think it’s a big problem like cycling was. I hope there’s not an issue, but there’s always the potential."

Courier appears to be trying to have it both ways: "...We have the rules in place. We have, I think, the best drug testing system around that I’m aware of...I think that given the great rewards that are out there in tennis, and given human nature, people will cut corners where you give them leeway to do so. I think you have to put your head in the sand to think that people wouldn’t try and cut corners given what’s on the line if you do well in our sport. Look at Wall Street...We’re not immune to that. I don’t think we have a problem, but we’re not immune to that."

2 comments:

"We use WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), and we’re on the Olympic Code, which is a pretty stringent code. Players do out-of-competition testing that’s unannounced. They have to give their whereabouts for one hour of the day, every day of the year. If they’re not where they say they are, that counts as a positive test against them."

Courier sounds aware of the rules, so I'm assuming he understands the three-strike rule. Therefore, that last sentence is misleading. A missed test doesn't generally count as a "positive test" as he put it.

The players and commentators always point to the whereabouts rule to show how "strict" tennis is. As noted above, a single missed test does not count as a "positive test." What is curious is why a common sense solution is not put in to resolve missed tests. Such as, if you miss a test, you must provide a sample within 24 hours of the missed test and will be subject to two additional unannounced tests within the next 30 days.

Any one who looks at the "three strikes" rule can easily see the solution -- hide when you are glowing. Yet commentators keep pointing out that players have to provide their whereabouts for 1 hour a day each and every day. What they never point out is now infrequently that whereabouts is actually used and how the 3 strikes rule makes it worthless.

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From what I've seen of it, I actually think it gives a pretty decent articulation of the worst-case scenario. But it cherry-picks things to support its particular theory, and ignores things that don't fit.-ESPN sportswriter, Kamakshi Tandon, expressing her opinion of this blog

"She kind of has, like, almost the game of a man. That's what it feels like."-Jelena Jankovic describing Samantha Stosur's masculine approach to the game of tennis.

"Players can use short-acting steroids in combination with human growth hormone which will produce muscle mass and enormous power, and while they can stop just before a competition and test clean, they still get the performance benefit of the drugs" Former chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, John Mendoza, 2002, claiming that tennis was approaching a crisis.

"To say that tennis today is clean, you have to be living in a dream world."Nicolas Escude, French Davis Cup player, 2002

[Former number 1, Marcelo] Rios thinks that the ATP protects Agassi of doping "I know that if nandrolone were found on Agassi, they would not disclose it. He is a very prominent, very popular player and if he were to fall, the world of tennis would fall with him." The Chilean remembered a case in Australia 2002 "where there was a control and Agassi disappeared, saying that they were going to kidnap his son..."

Also,

"Suspicion among the other players had long been rife that he [Agassi] may have used some substances to help him become one of the fittest and strongest guys around, although there was never any proof. There were some dubious circumstances, none more than his early-morning withdrawal from the defence of his title at the 2002 Australian Open, citing a wrist injury."

-Former Wimbledon champion, Pat Cash

"The ATP also suffers from a dilemma. Imagine if Federer or Nadal were caught doping. I probably would not suspend them, because they are too important. But where is the line?"- Former Pro Andrei Medvedev

Pictures used on this noncommercial blog are for editorial purposes only, to allow for opinions regarding particular tennis players' use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. The photos are cropped and of lower resolution than the fine originals, but are never photoshopped or otherwise altered.

"A site created by Don Quixote followed by numerous Sancho Pansas fighting windmills...."-From a commenter

"...in this steroid era we have lived in for the last decade or so, it has become wise for us in the media, to at least be wary of a player such as Nadal, who is so cut, so ripped, so buff for a tennis player, because we’ve never seen a good tennis player with that kind of physique."

"I can definitely say the same thing [discussing Steffi Graf’s claim that she had played against at least one top player who used steroids]. Steroids can really make a difference, physically and mentally. I’d be really disappointed if I had been ranked No. 2 behind someone who took steroids."-Chris Evert 1992

"Someone tried to get in the development, doing a drug test," [Venus] Williams said. "If I wasn't tested in the next two hours, I wouldn't be playing on tour. You know, there's always someone at the gates, trying to get in. Normally, I tell the gate, 'Tell them Venus moved to Siberia some months ago.' "

... she had trouble with her password in the computerized system overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency. She also said registered mail at her home could not be signed off on since she was traveling to WTA tournaments.- Yanina Wickmayer explains (in a dog ate my homework kind of way) why she was unavailable for mandatory drug testing.